Escathology
by Demolition Angel
Summary: AU Half of the world is dead. The rest of it is in a state of fear, chaos & destruction- and the only person they blame is the one person who was believed to be their savior. Details inside. (Plz R&R )


**RATING=** R

**GENRE=** Thriller/romance/angst

**PAIRINGS=** 2 be revealed later

**SUMMARY=** The mysterious death of a Hogwarts student begins a new era of mayhem, chaos & destruction in the Wizarding & muggle world where an apocalypse is imminent. ( a few odd pairings)

**CHAPTER TITLE=** The first one (prologue)

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September 21- _The daily prophet_

(Excerpts from article) **HOGWARTS - A DEAD ZONE**

A dead Hogwarts student's body was found last Thursday morning  
near the Hogsmeade bakery by an unsuspecting house-elf. The body  
is believed to have belonged to 14 year old Luna Lovegood who has  
only started her 5th year of study at Hogwarts this month. She was  
set to turn 15 today

The girl's skin was burnt off from the inside out by a controlled  
unnatural force leaving behind only bones and bits of burnt, dry and  
decaying flesh. Her skull was cracked, she had 3 broken ribs and a  
crushed arm. The body was found in behind a shed of an unwary baker  
and had already fallen victim to spider webs and rats.

In despite all of the damage, the St. Mungo's healers have managed  
to help the ministry identify the cadaver with their expertise........

...The girl's death is the 2nd one to happen in Hogwarts in the last 15  
months...

...the cause of death still remains a mystery...

...ministry suspects foul play by Lord Voldemort...

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Gloom slowly spread over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on that day when the article was printed. The mystery of why Luna Lovegood had not attended school for the past 3 days had been completely cleared. She was dead.

Murmurs were heard right around every table in the great hall. Everyone was in great shock.

"Did you see this?"

"I can't believe she's dead..."

"Not Luna..."

"How can this be?"

Among all the monotonous humming of the students' voices, the teachers uttered their concerns, speaking over each other- all except for professor Dumbledore who was the only one not in the school grounds. Professor McGonagall worriedly paced around the teacher's table holding the paper in her hands and reading the article on Luna Lovegood's tragic death over and over again. She then stopped and turned to face the teachers. Silence fell over them all until the tiny Flitwick cleared his throat and said in a hoarse voice:

"We can't wait another moment, Minerva, just do it."

The very nervous woman nodded and then directed her attention towards the students. After clearing her throat, she began:

"Students of Hogwarts; May I have your attention please?" Everyone hushed up and stared at McGonagall. "I have no doubt that all of you already know about the sudden Death of Luna Lovegood and that some of you even doubt what the paper had said, but..." her voice became slightly hoarse "It's all sadly true.

"I want you to know that none of you need to be worried and think that Hogwarts is an unsafe place, because it is not. You are all perfectly safe. Miss Lovegood was not in the school grounds when she died, she was in fact on her way to Birmingham on the morning of the tragic incident, as some of you may already know. So do not worry, you are all completely safe here."

She went on about how Dumbledore is at the ministry right at that moment investigating the case and how he would have come earlier and delivered the sad news to the school himself before the Daily Prophet sprung it on them like that. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville barely heard any of it.

"This is starting to really bother me." Hermione said looking at the rest of the school's reactions to Luna's death – The Ravenclaws to be more specific. "Just a week ago they didn't even care about who she was and they would hide her things just for the fun of it... just look at them now! Oh, god one's even crying!" She said that last sentence in a very disgusted tone.

Ron quickly changed the subject while Hermione went back to the article "What did McGonagall mean by 'as some of you may already know' anyway?"

Ginny answered that one "Oh, the night that Luna was gone McGonagall told the Ravenclaw girls in her dorm that she was gone to Birmingham to visit her mother in hospital who was feeling very sick."

"That can't be right." Harry looked up from his untouched breakfast "Luna's mother is dead. She died when Luna was nine. She told me so herself at the end of last year. McGonagall must have lied!"

The others all fell into silence which gunny broke;

"Not only about that but McGonagall said that Luna travelled in the morning," she added "I had potions with the Ravenclaws the last session on Thursday. Luna was my partner for the potion we were making. So if she left Hogwarts, it would be in the evening because I didn't see her after class anymore."

"It seems McGonagall's little alibi has a few holes in it." Ron pointed out. Silence again while the lot ponedred

"But guys," Neville directed the attention on to himself "Didn't it say that Luna's body was found 3 days ago? That means Wednesday right?"

"Hey that's right!" Ron called out and thereby attracted the attention of the whole Gryffindor table. All eyes were on him. Blushing, he lowered his voice. "Ginny, you can't have seen Luna on Thursday if she died on Wednesday!"

"But I have! I can prove it to you." Ginny then looked around. She spotted Colin Creevey sitting about 6 spots to her left and called out to him. "Hey Colin, d'you remember who my partner was in potions on Thursday last session?"

Colin thought for a bit and then answered. "It was Luna, wasn't it? Why do you ask?"

"Thanks Colin! And I'll explain later." She then turned back to her friends. "There you have it! He was sitting right behind us! Luna even helped him with his measuring of ingredients."

"That's just impossible... It can't be right..." Ron tried to make sense of it all but ended up even more confused "Someone who's been dead for a day can't just go to class like everyone else... Can they?"

"What do you think Hermione?" Harry asked his friend whom he was starting to believe had not heard a single word of the conversation they had just had. She continued gazing fixedly at the Daily Prophet and did not budge. "HERMIONE!" Harry tried once more, only louder. She looked up at him like he had gone insane.

"You don't have to shout! I'm not deaf you know?"

Harry just shook his head at that. He then tried to ask her again what she thought about the Luna/potions situation but Hermione cut him off. "Sorry Harry, but just listen to this for a moment, all of you;_ 'The body was found in behind a shed of an unwary baker and had already fallen victim to spider webs and rats.'_

This article talks about how Luna's body was just found by the house-elf 3 days ago and it talks about how it had 'fallen victim to spider webs and rats', and just look at the picture: [1]It looks like something was sitting there for quite a while and the removal of it caused a disturbance and...."

"Your point?" Harry cut in impatiently. "I'm afraid I'm not getting it at all."

"Harry, just look at the information from all sides here. According to it all, Luna left Hogwarts Wednesday morning, was killed Wednesday night and was found Thursday morning by the house elf. That's what it says here. But if you look at the description of the corpse and the picture of the place where it was found, it doesn't really sound like Luna was there for just one night." She handed the article to Ron. "Look."

"I'm starting to worry now..." Ginny said.

"As you should, because.... guys... Luna was dead for days before the house-elf found her." A series of gasps made its rounds with the group. "And... I don't know... I don't think the ministry would have just looked that over. I think they might already know that but didn't want to say anything.... I mean, if I could have figured it out so could they, they're not exactly idiots." After Ron was done inspecting the article and the photograph he handed it to Harry, Ginny and Neville on the opposite side of the table.

"It looks she's right." he mumbled as Harry took the article. "Have a look."

As Harry and Neville studied the article, Ginny asked Hermione; "Just out of curiosity, but did you happen to hear a word of the conversation the four of us were just having?"

"No, why?" Hermione answered.

Ginny shifted in her seat and then continued. "You see, we were just talking about how Luna and I were partners during potions just on Thursday. Colin confirmed that. He was there too. He was sitting just behind us. Luna even helped him with his potion."

Hermione stared at her blankly trying to comprehend what she had just heard. "Huh?" Hermione blinked a few times and then continued- "But that just doesn't make any sense..."

"I know it doesn't, but just ask anyone you want that was in our class and they'll confirm it too. Snape even took attendance and she was there. I know she was! I saw her with my own eyes!"

"Calm down Ginny," Harry said with a cool tone in his voice. "If what both of you say is right... we may have a bit of a situation here." He paused for a second and looked at each one of his friends. "Look, I think we all can agree on this; we have to find out the truth about Luna. She was our friend... she helped us sneak into the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius..." Harry trailed off here. After all, it still pained him to think about his Godfather who had given his life to protect him just a few months ago.

"We know Harry... but still...." Hermione cut in.

"But still I think we owe it to her to get to the bottom of this." Ron finished.

"That's right!" Ginny agreed.

"Yeah!" Neville joined in.

"But guys... you remember the '_ministry suspect foul play_' bit in the article?" Ginny pointed out. "This could be dangerous. We could just be dealing with the thing that killed Luna, and well, judging by what happened to her, it doesn't look very friendly."

"Well it can't be worse than Voldemort." Harry said reassuringly. His expression then changed- "Can it?"

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[1] (the caption under the photo was: the house-elf at the crime scene after the body was removed)

Well there it is! Chapter 1! If you want to see more press that little button in the bottom left hand corner that says 'submit review' and tell me what you thought of the prologue.

PS: In the next chapter, I won't be continuing on from here. I'm going to go forward in time a bit and tell the past in flashbacks and memories. I can assure you it's not going to be what you think.

Until next time,

_adieu_


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